(By: Edward Konecnik, Contributor, The American Dossier)
All the Democratic presidential candidates have put forth proposals that would fundamentally affect our economy, change our Constitution and, in effect, transform America. They persist in their manic obsession that President Trump is a Russian agent and must avenge his illegitimate election. Their speeches and pronouncements are reminiscent of the doublespeak of the Mad Hatter, March Hare and Dormouse in “Alice in Wonderland.”
They are convinced that the top 10 percent of earners are not paying their “fair share” when in reality they pay 70 percent of the revenue collected, that “social justice” requires the wealthy to share since they have more than they need, and that “equality” and “fairness” mean redistribution to each according to his needs. They are oblivious to the self-evident truth that you cannot make the poor prosperous by legislating prosperity out of the wealthy — just as you can’t multiply wealth by dividing it.
Author John Steinbeck said: “Socialism never took root in America because the poor see themselves not as an exploited proletariat but as temporarily embarrassed millionaires.” Being rich or being poor in America is not a fixed state. It is a function of mobility in a system in which many are moving in one direction or another. Redistribution does not lift those at a lower level to a higher economic level. Instead it takes from those who have achieved, discouraging their ideas, abilities and ambitions.
An omnipotent government that can give you everything you need can also take everything you have. In their infinite wisdom, the Founding Fathers enshrined in the Constitution the principle that the state is subservient to the individual, not vice versa. Henry David Thoreau observed, “The character inherent in the American people has done all that has been accomplished; and it would have done somewhat more, if the government had not sometimes got in the way.”
He also warned, “If I knew for a certainty that a man was coming to my house with the conscious design of doing me good, I should run for my life.”
Edward Konecnik is a retired music teacher, musician and singer. He produced the original Value Music Video for the NY State Curriculum Guide, “Lessons In Values Education” and was awarded first place prize for his anti-drug value music video “Don’t Start” by Governor Mario Cuomo (1986).
Konecnik was invited to perform in Slovakia on TV and in festivals by the Slovak cultural agency, Matica Slovenska. He is the first American artist invited to record in Slovakia for OPUS Records. “Prisiel som ja z Ameriky” Slovak folk songs. (1989) Instrumental accompaniments performed on synthesizer by Ed Konecnik “Lovely Lady Liberty” (1990).
Slovak melodies with English lyrics in country style.
He is also District 30 Media Center Director.
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